SUMMARY
The majority of responders suggested using "All categories" as the list
default. Some suggested also including "Select a Category" as a text prompt
above the pull-down list-- particularly if category selection is required or
recommended. Thank you all for your thorough and thoughtful replies.
ORIGINAL QUESTION
We are implementing a search on our Web site that allows for and/or
searching of two fields. The first field is a textbox keyword field and
the second is a "category" pull-down. The category pull-down menu is
set to default to "Select a Category" ... if this is chosen the search
looks for records in any of categories.
The debate is whether or not to include an "All" option in the menu. If
we did this, we could then either put "Select a Category" as text above
the pull-down menu field or leave it as the default.
My inclination is to simplify by keeping "Select a Category" in the menu
as the default. I think users understand that if they view the
categories and don't see one they like, they just go back to that
default option and the search will include all categories (or will
select none in particular, however you'd like to look at it).
I'm having a hard time finding any usability studies on how people use
pull- down menus or best-practices for designing them. I'd apppreciate
your input or any references you can point me towards.
Dana Allen-Greil
Web Project Manager
National Museum of American History
http://americanhistory.si.edu
RESPONSES:
If the dropdown options are:
Select a Category
Category 1
Category 2
...
I feel like I have to select one other than the first, and I don't
think there is an "all" choice available. On many sites, keeping
the "Select a Category" choice will cause an error message.
How about:
Category: All
Category 1
Category 2
...
It leaves "all" as the default but makes it clearer, IMHO.
- Mitch Gart
=============================================================
Generally, "Select a category..." should only be used where users are
expected
to select a specific category for searching. I have always tried to use
"All
Categories" as the default for category for searches as long as the search
does
not need to be specific. I have seen that many users feel they HAVE to
choose a
specific category if the drop down tells them too. If the category they are
thinking of is not listed, then they become confused and either stop what
they
are doing or try to choose a category that they think might have the answer.
As
for usability studies, I don't believe I have ever seen any either. I am
just
telling from my experience.
Hope I could help.
Jim Bunzol
=============================================================
I recommend a different approach. Use descriptive text next to the category
pulldown - 'Select a Category' or 'Categories' - and default the menu to
'All'. I prefer this approach over submitting a form with 'select a
category' as the selected entry.
Hope that helps.
Ray Nasto
Portal Integration & Usability Mgr.
AT&T CallVantage Service
http://www.att.com/callvantage
=============================================================
I just ran a study on a government Web site a few weeks ago and observed the
following. There was a search textbox and a second dropdown to the right.
Only 1 in 10 test participants used the category search. Most just typed in
a word or two and ran the search without changing the category.
I have watched hundreds of users attempt searches of various kinds. Most
people do not care to think about searching in any specific database, at
least on first attempt. I do not have any research that I can point to on
this, just my personal observation.
I believe that many people are familiar with simple searches and usually do
not want to think about how to construct the perfect query (except
librarians); they just want to find something fast. Usually, they type a
couple of words and see what happens. It is easier to work with some
results rather than to figure out why no results were found.
If users get zero results because the search engine is not pointed to a
relevant database or they have to think too much to create a good query,
they usually go elsewhere.
The question for your design may be, what happens if the user just enters a
few words and they do not select a category? If it defaults to 'all'
anyway, users will get more results that may not be as precise. If it
forces the user to choose, then the categories will have to be very clear.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Ron
Ron Perkins, Principal
http://www.DesignPerspectives.com/
Usability and Design Consulting
978.465.6083
=============================================================
I cannot point you to any usability studies on this, but I have an
opinion / suggestion.
"Select a Category" is not intuitively a category in itself. May I
suggest that you change it to "All Categories", and then have a text
label near the dropdown box that says "Select a category", or "Enter
your search text and select a category", or something like that.
Hope that helps,
Susan Ramlet
User-Centered Design Engineer
Medtronic
=============================================================
I say you should include "All" in the menu and move the "Select a Category"
prompt out of the menu and make it a label. Leaving "Select a Category" as
the default and having it mean "All" is misleading. Including "All" in the
menu but not as the default adds unnecessary keystrokes.
There is a discussion of the relevant design issues in the Form Bloopers
chapter of my Web Bloopers book, specifically Bloopers 24 (No Defaults) and
25 (Faulty Defaults). The issue of menus that contain their own prompt as
an initial value (which isn't always bad) is discussed on page 130-135. The
discussion covers what the bloopers are, why they are bloopers, and how to
avoid them.
Jeff Johnson, Ph.D.
UI Wizards, Inc.
Product Usability Consulting
http://www.uiwizards.com
=============================================================
I think you should do both, that is, one, have "Select a Category" as the
default--the user would not be able to leave that choice as as an effective
selection, that is, nothing would happen. Two, you would have an "all"
selection
option in the menu, or "All choices" or "All selections".
That is my opinion and is not based on defendable data. I personally would
not
understand that by using the "Select a Category" choice that it would mean
"all". With an explicit choice the user knows what is happening. Assumed
choices
always leave me up in the air; what does it "really" do?
Clark Parsons
Instructional Technology Specialist
Bakersfield College
=============================================================
Without knowing of any studies, but just going by my gut...
It seems like the simplest solution would be to make the default "All
categories," and then just list the other categories in your menu. I don't
think you'd need the explanatory "Select a category" text, because it would
be implied by the default "All categories." Also, you would avoid the
potential confusion of having two different menu items that essentially do
the same thing.
Just my two cents. Good luck!
:::::
John Yesko
http://www.yesko.com
773-490-9272 (mobile)
=============================================================
Just a quick two-cents worth. I think that "Select a Category" might
induce some users in thinking that is is a mandatory field... And if
users open the pull-down, and like you say don't find the category
they want, it would be a little unintuitive to go back to select
"Select a Category" as a category...
Why not just "category" next to the pull down which says "all" (or
any, depends)? And that way when something -is- selected, you can
still see the "category" words as a reminder of what the pull-down is
about and that is is optional.
david jacques
=============================================================
I would go with 'Select a Category' (SAC) & 'All' - both options in
the drop down.
When a user would type in a keyword and leaves the drop down default
to SAC, it would give a message saying 'Please select a category'.
OR the other option is
Remove SAC from the list and keep 'All' as default.
Cheers
Ashish Tibrewal
=============================================================
The cascading form elements you have described are misleading.Â The option
"Select a Category" is an explicit instruction and its function would only
be
discovered by people that 'play' with the interface.Â To remove that
guesswork,
why don't you clearly label the pull-down "Category" and set the default to
"Any" or "All" e.g. http://www.seek.com.au/http://www.careerone.com.au/
Bollaert (2002) concurs with this as she explains that instructional text
(e.g.
"Select a Category") should have a null value and only be used if there is
no
logical default option (such as "All"): "Dropdowns are designed to show a
default option, and additional options when the dropdown is opened. Do not
waste
the value of the default option by leaving it blank or using it arbitrarily.
The
default option should be the one most likely to be selected. If there's no
logical default option, default to a null value such as "Select One" that
prompts users to make a selection (see Figure 14)."
(ref: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/usability/library/us-widget/#11)
Best regards,
Ash Donaldson
User Experience Designer
=============================================================
As a user, if I looked in the menu and didn't see an option that made sense,
I would never think that <Select a category> would search through all of
them. At that point, I would be confused. I recommend adding a field label
called "Category" (don't need to say "Select a category", that's implied by
the drop-down), then having an "All" option.
Amazon also has a nice approach to this... they have an "All Products"
option in the un-labeled drop-down, which clearly tells you this is a
product selection drop-down.
Donna Tellam
Senior Product Manager
P 303.381.1936 | C 303.521.2426 | F 303.480.3633 | AIM GUIgirl
www.webMethods.com
=============================================================
Just to make sure I've got the description accurate, you've got a setup
similar to this...
Search for: [ ] in [ Select a Category [V]] [Go]
(hopefully that's close enough...)
My first question is what happens when a user types in a keyword but doesn't
select a category? Do they receive an error condition or does it default to
"all categories"?
If it's the latter, I'd recommend changing "Select a Category" to default to
"All Categories". It would address:
- users who do not realize that by not restricting, they're including (not
always true) and want to search on everything
- users who may feel they're forced into selecting a category (subset of the
above)
- users who may not feel that their search term fits into a particular
category
- Eliminating potential for error conditions
- Providing a broad search results set first and allowing users to restrict
as necessary...
- and a few other things...
It would look something like:
Search for: [ ] in [ All Categories [V]] [Go]
and then on the search results page, build in some nice filtering. We've
seen this above model work very well...
Hope this helps, or lemme know if I'm totally off base with what you were
describing...
Tim Semen
</tss>
=============================================================
"Select a Category" will not equate to "All" in everyone's mind, I can
guarantee that. Your more clever and perhaps impatient users will know
(or just luck out on) this, but your novice users will not.
Why not include a label that says "Category: " and an option for All and
make it the default? It is clear and should be well understood. To be
entirely pedantic, you might include an option on the menu at the top that
reads "Select:" or "Choose:" etc.
There is probably something somewhere by someone well known who's made
money on this topic, and I've likely paid to read about it. ;)
- Jim Simpson + http://jimsimpson.net -
=============================================================
I think this depends on whether you have additional search fields or not.
Here are some ideas FYI.
1. Place them on the same line. In this case, you may not need to have
field title
Keyword: [____________] [All Cateogries |v] [Search]
or
Search [All Categories |v] [_______________] [Go]
or other variations of the above.
2. Placing them into separate lines. Usually, you need field titles
especially if there are more fields.
Keyword: [____________]
Category: [All |v]
[Search]
- Cindy
HFE Consulting
http://www.hfec.biz
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